


Thermodynamics

by arachnida



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mutants, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-08-07 12:38:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7715212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arachnida/pseuds/arachnida
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fire and ice mutants are two sides of the same coin, manipulating and absorbing energy to affect temperature. Keith hasn't gotten the memo yet, and Lance attempts to help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thermodynamics

**Author's Note:**

> so uh once upon a time a friend and I made a ridiculously elaborate mutants/Xmen-esque storyline and I like Voltron, hi. Dedicated to my friend Logan who helped with even more world building and beta-reading.

“Focus, Keith.”

“That’s rich coming from you.”

Lance sat cross-legged on the floor of Keith’s cabin across from him, in the middle of a training exercise. It was a small one but significant, if the scorched skin under Keith’s feet were anything to go by. The cabin was getting stifling, the heat choking like a thick blanket. Lance squirmed in his seat, refocusing and drawing the heat into himself to even the temperature out. All he got was a pitiful attempt at a cool breeze, which earned Keith a grimace.

“Seriously, Keith,” Lance groaned, trying not to sweat as he kept bringing the heat into himself. “You’re moving the energy outward; you need to pull it in.”

“I’m trying, dammit,” Keith snarled back, eyebrows knotted. All his life he pushed, expended; to be asked to bring something in wasn’t in his nature as a general rule. There had been a few embarrassing incidents where one of the others had found him outside, taxed out of energy and on the verge of passing out. That almost happened if Lance hadn’t been on his way back to the tiny shack out in the middle of nowhere. Keith had been running, having a moment to do it barefoot, the soles of his feet scorched from the hot sand and his expended powers.

Lance reached out, face in pain at holding Keith’s hands. His hands were uncomfortably cold, a slight burning sensation in Lance’s palms against Keith’s wrists. A man who exercised half as much as he did shouldn’t feel like a glacier, but the metaphor wasn’t exactly lost on Lance.

“Pull me in.”

That was one of Lance’s weirder requests, barring his misadventures and proclivities. “Like this?”

The pathetic tug to get his hands out was the most half-hearted thing Keith had done all day, making Lance whine in annoyance. “Come on, like you mean it!”

Keith did as he was told, tugging good and hard on Lance which was probably not the direction the Cuban intended, sending the both of them flying backward, skidding the rug back and Keith’s cat running off to safety. Lance landed face-first into Keith’s chest, more cushioned than his own due to muscle mass but still uncomfortable because of how damn cold Keith’s entire body was. Keith was much more concerned about Lance, his hand furiously patting the Cuban’s head and face.

“Christ you’re hot,” Keith said, ignoring the fact Lance was going to take it the wrong way and continued checking his temperature. “Like, are you actually okay?”

“About time you came around,” Lance teased, earning a light smack to the forehead. “I’m fine, it’s my natural state.”

Keith huffed in annoyance. “What’s the point of this stupid exercise anyway, to sweat us out?”

Lance breathed out, hating how gross and sticky he felt and picked himself up off of the other man. Of course Keith had no air conditioner, not even a little window unit. Lance didn’t get it; a man who naturally ran as cold as Keith had to have been on the verge on heatstroke almost daily. “It’s something Pidge or Shiro told me, one of them. About how fire and ice users are the same, it’s just about how you draw in heat or cold or whatever, it’s weird to explain.”

Keith was not going to make a point to brag about the fact he was naturally smarter than Lance, even if it was elementary physics. Not on Lance’s watch, anyway. He was already naturally good looking, naturally athletic, it wasn’t fair.

“Try then. I mean, you make an idiot of yourself, but I’ve gotten better at translating.”

Lance squinted at Keith, blinking like a displeased hawk. “ _Cuidado, hombre…_ ”

“Look I’m already trying to grapple with this damn heat, I don’t want to translate an actual foreign language at the moment. God, can we get to the damn point of this exercise, it’s a fucking sauna in here!” Keith was at the end of his rope if he rambled at even half the capacity that Lance could on a good day.

“That’s why I’m trying to get you to pull! You just…push and push, and you wonder why you’re so cold all the time!”

“What are you going on about; the pushing and the pull—wait.”

Keith’s mind was at work, missing a few pieces but it started to click in what Lance was getting at. Of course it was also difficult to think when the latter was just rambling on without much substance. But like sifting through sand, Lance did have a point somewhere.

Lance was rambling as Keith was trying to remember something. “I didn’t think these freaky powers had like, actual science, behind them, alright? I just found out eating lunch at home one day and suddenly my food’s cold in like two seconds flat! I ain’t that slow at eating.”

“You’re not slow at a lot of things,” Keith quipped, smirking at Lance’s decidedly unamused expression.  
The two boys smiled, chuckling. Lance shot back, “I’m working on that.”

“Alright, if Shiro had something to say about it…” Keith conceded, giving a labored sigh and refocused himself. He adjusted his neck, making it pop along with his shoulders before making himself comfortable again. Lance watched Keith, trying not to laugh at how cat-like he could be. They grew quiet.

Lance broke the silence after a minute, “Like, what are you thinking about?”

“Thermodynamics,” Keith started and that’s when it clicked. He smacked himself on the forehead, a slight blush coming up on his cheeks. Of all the people to remind him of a concept like that…

“Thermo-whata?” Lance tilted his head, the word not registering any significance. The heat was getting to be too much at this point, his eyes red and tired. A thin film of sweat coated his entire body, only making the humidity worse.

“How temperature works – Lance, we’re pilots, this is something you should know. Hell, it’s something I should’ve already guessed!” Keith tried not to yell, still bewildered as he gestured almost furiously at himself. Lance scoffed and shook his head.

“Dude, don’t be hard on yourself, I mean, we’re all first generation, you know? Not like there’s a book at the library called _How to Deal With Your Freaky Powers_ by some doctor on T.V., you know?” Lance replied, taking the humble route for once. That went out the window with the following comment: “And I remember thermodynamics, alright, it’s just…so fucking hot in this cabin.”

“Well, you weren’t making much sense with the pushing and pulling. Then I thought about Shiro translating for you…” Keith mumbled before readjusting himself once more, Lance’s nature making Keith prone to slouching around him. He made a small smile that came off like a smirk instead, but Lance grinned back just the same.

They got back to work, closing their eyes and focused. Lance continued to draw the heat into himself, the sweat sticky on his forehead. Keith’s breathing was deeper; more concentrated as he forced himself to do the opposite of what he had been doing the whole time this pyrokinesis of his manifested. It was like teaching yourself to be ambidextrous: unnatural with significant strain.

But something clicked for Keith, if Lance could judge by the way the black-haired man’s breathing shifted and shallowed, something he only did when face-first with the unfamiliar.

Lance opened his eyes and observed Keith, trying not to be too distracted with the way he had his brows knotted and how the inside of his cheek tucked in itself as he bit at it. “Everything alright? You see something?”

Keith held his tongue from a smart comment, instead offering something more constructive. “I see something like…blue, about where you are. Like…I guess this is what people call an aura?”

Lance nodded, pleased with that response. “There you go, now like…make it come to you. I know it sounds dumb, but…you’re an ace for a reason. Trust me.”

Keith made this strange blue light crawl slowly around his hand, like dipping it into a slow moving stream. It wasn’t as cold as he was, more pleasant as he felt his temperature increase ever so slightly. It was a nourishing feeling as the air around them lightened from mugginess to something crisper, Keith feeling rejuvenated. It was like a drink of water after a long run in a blistering sun, his feet feeling much better as if the energy was healing him. He blinked slowly and opened his eyes, still maintaining his focus as energy came into him at a steady pace. He was rewarded with a slightly stronger breeze than Lance’s, a lock of hair fluttering past by his ear for proof.

“Show off,” Lance huffed, no bite into it. Keith looked too entranced in this exciting feeling, like a kid feeling the first playful nip of autumn as their cheeks. They sat in silence for a few more minutes as the temperature in the cabin dropped to a more bearable seventy-nine or so; still warm, but not suffocating.

Keith looked at the Cuban, head tilted. “How long did it take you to figure that out?”

“Eh, overnight,” Lance boasted, shrugged his shoulders with a smug grin. Keith translated it as ‘longer than I care to admit.’

“You’re probably going to have to do it more consciously than me, though. Like, you naturally project energy out – that’s why you do fire – but you’re not Hunk, you can’t give that heat a constant power source.”

“Muscular atrophy?” Keith asked, piecing Lance-speak to normal speech.

“Well, I was going to say it would turn you into a toothpick, but sure, use a fancy science term on me.”

“Ah so it would turn me into you,” Keith said, his snort too lighthearted to be dismissive.

“Hey, if you put it that way,” Lance trailed off, shooting Keith a suggestive grin.

Keith wasn’t even going to try and argue that, instead going to his own preference and heated up a patch on Lance’s jacket to the point of a small fire. As Lance busied himself with the spontaneous combustible emergency, Keith took the opportunity to wander back into his room with his phone, shooting a message to Shiro: _Thanks. Even if Lance is a dumbass._

He plopped onto the bed, his cat making a little jolted purr before rolling back into the tight little ball in the sunlight. His phone vibrated with another message.

_Good. We both worry about you._

Keith smiled. He was going to be okay after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Mutant powers are the reason I bother to research physics, it’s really embarrassing.
> 
> also: 79F is roughly 26C, give or take.


End file.
